St. Augustine (/ˈɔːɡəstiːn/ aw-GƏ-steen; Spanish: San Agustín [san aɣusˈtin]) is a city in and the county seat of St. Johns County located 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Jacksonville. The city is on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States.

St. Augustine was founded on September 8, 1565, by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Florida's first governor. He named the settlement San Agustín, for his ships bearing settlers, troops, and supplies from Spain had first sighted land in Florida eleven days earlier on August 28, the feast day of St. Augustine. The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years. It was designated as the capital of British East Florida when the colony was established in 1763; Great Britain returned Florida to Spain in 1783.

Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819, and St. Augustine was designated one of the two alternating capitals of the Florida Territory, the other being Pensacola, upon ratification of the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1821. The Florida National Guard made the city its headquarters that same year. The territorial government moved and made Tallahassee the permanent capital of Florida in 1824.

St. Augustine is part of Florida's First Coast region and the Jacksonville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. It had a population of 14,329 at the 2020 census, up from 12,975 at the 2010 census. Since the late 19th century, St. Augustine's distinctive historical character has made the city a tourist attraction. Castillo de San Marcos, the city's 17th-century Spanish fort—constructed out of the sedimentary rock coquina—continues to attract tourists. St. George Street is a major pedestrian street that runs through the downtown area and includes over 30 historic houses and tourist attractions.

History

Historical Affiliations

Spanish Empire 1565–1763
Kingdom of Great Britain 1763–1784
Spanish Empire 1784–1821
United States 1821–1861
Confederate States 1861–1862
United States 1862–present

Early exploration

The first European known to have explored the coasts of Florida was the Spanish explorer and governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de León, who likely ventured in 1513 as far north as the vicinity of the future St. Augustine, naming the peninsula he believed to be an island "La Florida" and claiming it for the Spanish crown.

Founding by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

Founded in 1565 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the contiguous United States. It is the second-oldest continuously inhabited city of European origin in a United States territory, after San Juan, Puerto Rico (founded in 1521).

In 1560, King Philip II of Spain appointed Menéndez as Captain General, and his brother Bartolomé Menéndez as Admiral, of the Fleet of the Indies. Thus Pedro Menéndez commanded the galleons of the great Armada de la Carrera, or Spanish Treasure Fleet, on their voyage from the Caribbean and Mexico to Spain, and determined the routes they followed.

In early 1564, he asked permission to go to Florida to search for La Concepcion, the galeon Capitana, or flagship, of the New Spain fleet commanded by his son, Admiral Juan Menéndez. The ship had been lost in September 1563 when a hurricane scattered the fleet as it was returning to Spain, at the latitude of Bermuda off the coast of South Carolina. The crown repeatedly refused his request.

The crown eventually approached Menéndez to fit out an expedition to Florida on the condition that he explore and settle the region as King Philip's adelantado, and eliminate the Huguenot French, whom the Catholic Spanish considered to be dangerous heretics.

Menéndez was in a race to reach Florida before the French captain Jean Ribault, who was on a mission to secure Fort Caroline. On August 28, 1565, the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo, Menéndez's crew finally sighted land; the Spaniards continued sailing northward along the coast from their landfall, investigating every inlet and plume of smoke along the shore. On September 4, they encountered four French vessels anchored at the mouth of a large river (the St. Johns), including Ribault's flagship, La Trinité. The two fleets met in a brief skirmish, but it was not decisive. Menéndez sailed southward and landed again on September 8, formally declared possession of the land in the name of Philip II, and officially founded the settlement he named San Agustín (Saint Augustine). Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, the chaplain of the expedition, celebrated the first Thanksgiving Mass on the grounds. The formal Franciscan outpost, Mission Nombre de Dios, was founded at the landing point, perhaps the first mission in what would become the continental United States.

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés moved his colony to the settlement of the Seloy tribe of the Timucua. Their chief gave them the Great House, a structure able to hold several hundred people. Around this meeting house the Spanish dug a moat and added fortifications.

The mission served nearby villages of the Mocama, a Timucua group, and was at the center of an important chiefdom in the late 16th and 17th century. The settlement was built in the former Timucua village of Seloy; this site was chosen for its strategic location facing the waterways of St. Augustine bay with their abundant resources, an eminently suitable site for water communications and defense.

A French attack on St. Augustine was thwarted by a violent squall that ravaged the French naval forces. Taking advantage of this, Menéndez marched his troops overland to Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River, about 30 miles (50 km) north. The Spanish easily overwhelmed the lightly defended French garrison, which had been left with only a skeleton crew of 20 soldiers and about 100 others, killing most of the men and sparing about 60 women and children. Menéndez renamed the fort San Mateo and marched back to St. Augustine, where he discovered that the shipwrecked survivors from the French ships had come ashore to the south of the settlement. A Spanish patrol encountered the remnants of the French force, and took them prisoner. Menéndez accepted their surrender, but then executed all of them except a few professing Catholics and some Protestant workers with useful skills, at what is now known as Matanzas Inlet (Matanzas is Spanish for "slaughters"). The site is very near the national monument Fort Matanzas, built in 1740–1742 by the Spanish.

Invasions by pirates and enemies of Spain

Succeeding governors of the province maintained a peaceful coexistence with the local Native Americans, allowing the isolated outpost of St. Augustine some stability for a few years. On May 28 and 29, 1586, soon after the Anglo-Spanish War began between England and Spain, the English privateer Sir Francis Drake sacked and burned St. Augustine. The approach of his large fleet obliged Governor Pedro Menéndez Márquez and the townspeople to evacuate the settlement. When the English got ashore, they seized some artillery pieces and a royal strongbox containing gold ducats (which was the garrison payroll). The killing of their sergeant major by the Spanish rearguard caused Drake to order the town razed to the ground.

In 1609 and 1611, expeditions were sent out from St. Augustine against the English colony at Jamestown. In the second half of the 17th century, groups of Indians from the colony of Carolina conducted raids into Florida and killed the Franciscan priests who served at the Catholic missions. Requests by successive governors of the province to strengthen the presidio's garrison and fortifications were ignored by the Spanish Crown which had other priorities in its vast empire. The charter of 1663 for the new Province of Carolina, issued by King Charles II of England, was revised in 1665, claiming lands as far southward as 29 degrees north latitude, about 65 miles south of the existing settlement at St. Augustine.

The English buccaneer Robert Searle sacked St. Augustine in 1668, after capturing some Spanish supply vessels bound for the settlement and holding their crews at gun point while his men hid below decks. Searle was retaliating for the Spanish destruction of the settlement of New Providence in the Bahamas. Searle and his men killed sixty people and pillaged public storehouses, churches and houses. This raid and the establishment of the English settlement at Charles Town spurred the Spanish Crown to finally acknowledge the vulnerability of St. Augustine to foreign incursions and strengthen the city's defenses. In 1669, Queen Regent Mariana ordered the Viceroy of New Spain to disburse funds for the construction of a permanent masonry fortress, which began in 1672. Before the fortress was completed, French buccaneers Michel de Grammont and Nicolas Brigaut planned an ill-fated attack in 1686 which was foiled: their ships were run aground, Grammont and his crew were lost at sea, and Brigaut was captured ashore by Spanish soldiers. The Castillo de San Marcos was completed in 1695, not long before an attack by James Moore's forces from Carolina in November, 1702. Failing to capture the fort after a siege of 58 days, the British set St. Augustine ablaze as they retreated.

In 1738, the governor of Spanish Florida, Manuel de Montiano, ordered a settlement be constructed two miles north of St. Augustine for the growing Free Black community established by fugitive slaves who had escaped into Florida from the Thirteen Colonies. This new community, Fort Mose, would serve as a military outpost and buffer for St. Augustine, as the men accepted into Fort Mose had enlisted in the colonial militia and converted to Catholicism in exchange for their freedom.

In 1740, however, St. Augustine was again besieged, this time by the governor of the British colony of Georgia, General James Oglethorpe, who was also unable to take the fort.

Loyalist haven under British rule

The 1763 Treaty of Paris, signed after Great Britain's victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years' War, ceded Florida to Great Britain in exchange for the return of Havana and Manila. The vast majority of Spanish colonists in the region left Florida for Cuba, Florida became Great Britain's fourteenth and fifteenth North American colonies, and because of the political sympathies of its British inhabitants, St. Augustine became a Loyalist haven during the American Revolutionary War.

After the mass exodus of St. Augustinians, Great Britain sought to repopulate its new colony. The London Board of Trade advertised 20,000-acre lots to any group that would settle in Florida within ten years, with one resident per 100 acres. Pioneers who were "energetic and of good character" were given 100 acres of land and 50 additional acres for each family member they brought. Under Governor James Grant, almost three million acres of land were granted in East Florida alone. Second stories were added to existing Spanish homes and new houses were built. Cattle ranching and plantation agriculture began to thrive.

During the twenty-year period of British rule, Britain took command of both the Castillo de San Marcos (renamed Fort St. Mark) and of Fort Matanzas. They permanently stationed a small group of men at Fort Matanzas. Once war broke out, loyalist St. Augustine residents burned effigies of Patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock in the plaza. Fort St. Mark became a training and supply base, as well as a prisoner-of-war camp where three signers of the Declaration of Independence and South Carolina's lieutenant governor Christopher Gadsden were held. Local militias composed of Florida, Georgia, and Carolina inhabitants formed the East Florida Rangers in 1776 and were reorganized to form the King's Rangers in 1779. Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez, harassed the British in West Florida and captured Pensacola. Fears that the Spanish would then move to capture St. Augustine, however, proved unfounded.

The 1783 Treaty of Paris, which recognized the independence of the Thirteen Colonies as the United States, ceded Florida back to Spain and returned the Bahamas to Britain. As a result, some of the town's Spanish residents returned to St Augustine. Refugees from Dr. Andrew Turnbull's troubled colony in New Smyrna had fled to St. Augustine in 1777, made up the majority of the city's population during the period of British rule, and remained when the Spanish Crown took control again. This group was, and still is, referred to locally as "Menorcans", even though it also included settlers from Italy, Corsica and the Greek islands.

Second Spanish period

During the Second Spanish period (1784–1821) of Florida, Spain was dealing with invasions of the Iberian peninsula by Napoleon's armies in the Peninsular War, and struggled to maintain a tenuous hold on its territories in the western hemisphere as revolution swept South America. The royal administration of Florida was neglected, as the province had long been regarded as an unprofitable backwater by the Crown. The United States, however, considered Florida vital to its political and military interests as it expanded its territory in North America, and maneuvered by sometimes clandestine means to acquire it. On October 5, 1811, a hurricane hit St. Augustine that caused extensive damage to the city. The damage was further exacerbated by the economic situation of Spanish Florida. The Adams–Onís Treaty, negotiated in 1819 and ratified in 1821, ceded Florida and St. Augustine, still its capital at the time, to the United States.

Territory of Florida

According to the Adams–Onís Treaty, the United States acquired East Florida and absolved Spain of $5 million of debt. Spain renounced all claims to West Florida and the Oregon Country. Andrew Jackson returned to Florida in 1821, upon ratification of the treaty, and established a new territorial government. Americans from older plantation societies of Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas began to move to the area. West Florida was quickly consolidated with East and the new capital of Florida became Tallahassee, halfway between the old capitals of St. Augustine and Pensacola, in 1824.

Once many Americans had begun to immigrate to the new territory, it became apparent that there would be continued skirmishes with local Creek and Miccosukee peoples and white settlers encroaching on their land. The United States government favored removal policies, but local indigenous groups in Florida refused to leave without fighting. The nineteenth century saw three Seminole Wars. In 1823, territorial governor William Duval and James Gadsden signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, forcing Seminoles onto a four million acre reservation in central Florida. The Second Seminole War (1835–1842) was the longest war of Indian removal and resulted when the United States government attempted to move the Seminole people from Central Florida to a Creek reservation west of the Mississippi River. As a result of the Seminole War, Seminole prisoners, including the prominent leader Osceola, were held captive in the Castillo de San Marcos, renamed Fort Marion after General Francis Marion, who fought in the American Revolution, in the 1830s.

By 1840, the territory's population had reached 54,477 people. Half the population were enslaved Africans. Steamboats were popular on the Apalachicola and St. Johns Rivers, and there were several plans for railroad construction. The territory south of present-day Gainesville was sparsely populated by whites.

In 1845 the Florida Territory was admitted into the Union as the State of Florida.

Civil War

Slave Market, St. Augustine, Florida in 1886

On January 7, 1861, only three days before Florida would secede and join the Confederacy, a group of 125 Florida militia marched on Fort Marion. The fort was guarded by a single sergeant, who surrendered the fort after being provided with a receipt. Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was commander of coastal defenses at the time, ordered that the fort's cannons be removed and sent to more strategic locations, such as Fernandina and the mouth of the St. Johns River.

The town raised a Confederate militia unit, known as the Florida Independent Blues or the Saint Augustine Blues. They were soon joined by the Milton Guard, another militia unit.

In an effort to help blockade runners avoid capture, the Confederate government ordered all lighthouses to be extinguished. In St. Augustine, the customhouse officer, Paul Arnau, organized the "Coastal Guard", a group who worked to disable the lighthouses along Florida's east coast. They started by removing and hiding the lenses from the St. Augustine Light before moving south. After successfully dismantling the lighthouses at Cape Canaveral, Jupiter Inlet, and Key Biscayne, Arnau returned to St. Augustine. He would then serve as mayor from 1861 until early 1862, just before the Federals took over the city.

The Confederate authorities remained in control of St. Augustine for fourteen months, although it was barely defended. The Union conducted a blockade of shipping. In 1862 Union troops gained control of St. Augustine and controlled it through the rest of the war. With the economy already suffering, many residents fled.

Henry Flagler and the railroad

St. Augustine in 1891 from the former San Marco Hotel, Spanish St. on left, Huguenot Cemetery lower left corner, Cordova St. on right

Henry Flagler, a co-founder with John D. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Company, spent the winter of 1883 in St. Augustine and found the city charming, but considered its hotels and transportation systems inadequate. He had the idea to make St. Augustine a winter resort for wealthy Americans from the north, and to bring them south he bought several short line railroads and combined these in 1885 to form the Florida East Coast Railway. He built a railroad bridge over the St. Johns River in 1888, opening up the Atlantic coast of Florida to development.

Flagler finished construction in 1887 on two large ornate hotels in the city, the 450-room Hotel Ponce de Leon and the 250-room Hotel Alcazar. The next year, he purchased the Casa Monica Hotel (renaming it the Cordova Hotel) across the street from both the Alcazar and the Ponce de Leon. His chosen architectural firm, Carrère and Hastings, radically altered the appearance of St. Augustine with these hotels, giving it a skyline and beginning an architectural trend in the state characterized by the use of the Spanish Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival styles. With the opening of the Ponce de Leon in 1888, St. Augustine became the winter resort of American high society for a few years.

When Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad was extended southward to Palm Beach and then Miami in the early 20th century, the wealthy stopped in St. Augustine en route to the southern resorts. Wealthy vacationers began to customarily spend their winters in South Florida, where the climate was warmer and freezes were rare. St. Augustine nevertheless still attracted tourists, and eventually became a destination for families traveling in automobiles as new highways were built and Americans took to the road for annual summer vacations. The tourist industry soon became the dominant sector of the local economy.

Civil Rights Movement

In 1963, nearly a decade after the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation of schools was unconstitutional, African Americans were still trying to get St. Augustine to integrate the public schools in the city. They were also trying to integrate public accommodations, such as lunch counters. Local students held protests throughout the city, including sit-ins at the local Woolworth's, picket lines, and marches through the downtown. These protests were often met with police violence. Homes of African Americans were firebombed, black leaders were assaulted and threatened with death, and others were fired from their jobs.

In the spring of 1964, St. Augustine civil rights leader Robert Hayling asked the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its leader Martin Luther King Jr. for assistance. From May until July 1964, King and Hayling, along with Hosea Williams, C. T. Vivian, Dorothy Cotton, Andrew Young and others, organized marches, sit-ins, pray-ins, wade-ins and other forms of protest in St. Augustine. Hundreds of black and white civil rights supporters were arrested, and the jails were filled to capacity. At the request of Hayling and King, civil rights supporters from elsewhere, including students, clergy, activists and well-known public figures, came to St. Augustine and were arrested together.

St. Augustine was the only place in Florida where King was arrested; his arrest there occurred on June 11, 1964, on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge's restaurant. The demonstrations came to a climax when a group of black and white protesters jumped into the hotel's segregated swimming pool. In response to the protest, James Brock, the manager of the hotel and the president of the Florida Hotel & Motel Association, poured muriatic acid into the pool to scare the protesters. Photographs of this were broadcast around the world. One appeared on the front page of the Washington paper the day the senate went to vote on the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It became the most famous photograph ever taken in St. Augustine.

The Ku Klux Klan and its supporters responded to these protests with violent attacks that were widely reported in national and international media. Popular revulsion against the Klan and police violence in St. Augustine generated national sympathy for the black protesters and became a key factor in Congressional passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading eventually to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which provided federal enforcement of constitutional rights.

St. Augustine's historically Black college, now Florida Memorial University, felt itself unwelcome in St. Augustine, and departed in 1968 for a new campus near Opa-locka in Dade County. It is currently located in the Opa-locka North neighborhood of Miami Gardens, next to St. Thomas University.

Modern St. Augustine

In 1965, St. Augustine celebrated the 400th anniversary of its founding, and jointly with the State of Florida, inaugurated a program to restore part of the colonial city. The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board was formed to reconstruct more than thirty-six buildings to their historical appearance, which was completed within a few years. When the State of Florida abolished the Board in 1997, the City of St. Augustine assumed control of the reconstructed buildings, as well as other historic properties including the Government House. In 2010, the city transferred control of the historic buildings to UF Historic St. Augustine, Inc., a direct support organization of the University of Florida.

Cross and Sword was a 1965 play by American playwright Paul Green created to honor the 400th anniversary of the settlement of St. Augustine. It was Florida's official state play, having received the designation by the Florida Senate in 1973. It was performed for ten weeks every summer in St. Augustine for more than 30 years, closing in 1996.

In 2015, St. Augustine celebrated the 450th anniversary of its founding with a four-day long festival and a visit from Felipe VI of Spain and Queen Letizia of Spain.

On October 7, 2016 Hurricane Matthew caused widespread flooding in downtown St. Augustine.

Geography and climate

View of St. Augustine from the top of the lighthouse on Anastasia Island

St. Augustine is located at 29°53′41″N 81°18′52″W / 29.89472°N 81.31444°W / 29.89472; -81.31444 (29.8946910, −81.3145170). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.7 square miles (27.8 km²), 8.4 square miles (21.7 km²) of which is land and 2.4 square miles (6.1 km²) (21.99%) is water. Access to the Atlantic Ocean is via the St. Augustine Inlet of the Matanzas River.

St. Augustine has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) typical of the Gulf and South Atlantic states. The low latitude and coastal location give the city a mostly warm and sunny climate. Unlike much of the contiguous United States, St. Augustine's driest time of year is winter. The hot and wet season extends from May through October, while the cool and dry season extends November through April.

In summer, average high temperatures are in the lower 90's F (32 C) and normal low temperatures are in the 70's F (20 - 22 C). The Bermuda High pumps in hot and unstable tropical air from the Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico, which help create the daily thundershowers that are typical in summer months. Intense but very brief downpours are common in summer in the city. Fall and spring are warm and sunny with highs from 74 °F to 87 °F and lows in the 50s to 70s.

In winter, St. Augustine has generally mild and sunny weather typical of the Florida peninsula. The coolest months are from December through February, with highs from 67 °F to 70 °F and lows from 47 °F to 51 °F. From November through April, St. Augustine often has long periods of rainless weather. April can see near drought conditions with brush fires and water restrictions in place. St. Augustine averages 4.6 frosts per year. The record low of 10 °F (−12 °C) happened on January 21, 1985. Hurricanes occasionally impact the region; however, like most areas prone to such storms, St. Augustine rarely suffers a direct hit by a major hurricane. The last direct hit by a major hurricane to the city was Hurricane Dora in 1964. Extensive flooding occurred in the downtown area of St. Augustine when Hurricane Matthew passed east of the city in October 2016.

Climate data for St. Augustine, Florida (St. Augustine Light), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1973–2016
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	86 (30)	87 (31)	93 (34)	95 (35)	98 (37)	101 (38)	103 (39)	101 (38)	99 (37)	94 (34)	89 (32)	86 (30)	103 (39)
Mean maximum °F (°C)	80.0 (26.7)	81.8 (27.7)	84.9 (29.4)	88.6 (31.4)	93.3 (34.1)	95.9 (35.5)	97.6 (36.4)	96.0 (35.6)	92.8 (33.8)	89.0 (31.7)	84.2 (29.0)	81.1 (27.3)	98.5 (36.9)
Mean daily maximum °F (°C)	67.5 (19.7)	69.7 (20.9)	74.4 (23.6)	79.8 (26.6)	85.1 (29.5)	88.6 (31.4)	91.0 (32.8)	89.9 (32.2)	87.4 (30.8)	81.8 (27.7)	74.9 (23.8)	68.9 (20.5)	79.9 (26.6)
Daily mean °F (°C)	57.6 (14.2)	60.0 (15.6)	64.5 (18.1)	70.2 (21.2)	76.3 (24.6)	80.4 (26.9)	82.4 (28.0)	82.1 (27.8)	80.3 (26.8)	74.2 (23.4)	66.2 (19.0)	60.1 (15.6)	71.2 (21.8)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C)	47.8 (8.8)	50.2 (10.1)	54.6 (12.6)	60.6 (15.9)	67.4 (19.7)	72.3 (22.4)	73.8 (23.2)	74.2 (23.4)	73.1 (22.8)	66.5 (19.2)	57.5 (14.2)	51.3 (10.7)	62.4 (16.9)
Mean minimum °F (°C)	28.1 (−2.2)	32.1 (0.1)	36.9 (2.7)	44.6 (7.0)	55.6 (13.1)	64.8 (18.2)	68.1 (20.1)	68.6 (20.3)	64.0 (17.8)	49.0 (9.4)	39.1 (3.9)	31.4 (−0.3)	25.6 (−3.6)
Record low °F (°C)	10 (−12)	21 (−6)	23 (−5)	34 (1)	41 (5)	52 (11)	59 (15)	61 (16)	54 (12)	36 (2)	29 (−2)	16 (−9)	10 (−12)
Average precipitation inches (mm)	2.74 (70)	2.69 (68)	3.43 (87)	2.93 (74)	3.66 (93)	6.27 (159)	4.88 (124)	7.18 (182)	7.18 (182)	4.37 (111)	2.32 (59)	2.99 (76)	50.64 (1,286)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in)	9.4	7.8	8.6	6.8	7.2	12.3	11.6	15.0	13.5	9.1	8.1	8.4	117.8
Source: NOAA (mean maxima/minima 1981–2010)

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1830	1,708	—
1840	2,450	43.4%
1850	1,934	−21.1%
1860	1,914	−1.0%
1870	1,717	−10.3%
1880	2,293	33.5%
1890	4,742	106.8%
1900	4,272	−9.9%
1910	5,494	28.6%
1920	6,192	12.7%
1930	12,111	95.6%
1940	12,090	−0.2%
1950	13,555	12.1%
1960	14,734	8.7%
1970	12,352	−16.2%
1980	11,985	−3.0%
1990	11,692	−2.4%
2000	11,592	−0.9%
2010	12,975	11.9%
2020	14,329	10.4%
U.S. Decennial Census

**St. Augustine racial composition**
(Hispanics excluded from racial categories)
(*NH = Non-Hispanic*)
Race	Pop 2010	Pop 2020	% 2010	% 2020
White (NH)	10,443	11,275	80.49%	78.69%
Black or African American (NH)	1,460	1,136	11.25%	7.93%
Native American or Alaska Native (NH)	46	40	0.35%	0.28%
Asian (NH)	155	246	1.19%	1.72%
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian (NH)	10	7	0.08%	0.05%
Some other race (NH)	19	53	0.15%	0.37%
Two or more races/Multiracial (NH)	186	523	1.43%	3.65%
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	656	1,049	5.06%	7.32%
Total	12,975	14,329

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 14,329 people, 5,828 households, and 3,072 families residing in the city.

In 2020, 2.2% of the population were under 5 years old, 8.7% under 18 years old, and 25.5% were 65 years and over. 57.9% of the population were female.

In 2020, the median value of owner-occupied housing units was $294,600. The median gross rent was $1,118. 91.2% of households had a computer and 83.0% of households had a broadband internet subscription.

In 2020, 93.8% of the population 25 years and older had a high school degree or higher and 37.4% of that same population had a bachelor's degree or higher.

In 2020, the median household income was $60,455. The per capita income was $33,060. 17.0% lived below the Poverty threshold.

There were 1,230 veterans living in the city between 2016 and 2020, and 6.6% of the population were foreign born persons.

As of the 2010 United States census, there were 12,975 people, 5,494 households, and 2,546 families residing in the city.

Transportation

Highways

Major roadways, St. Augustine and vicinity

Interstate 95 runs north–south.
U.S. Route 1 runs north–south.
State Road A1A runs north–south.
State Road 16 runs east–west
State Road 207 runs northeast–southwest
State Road 312 runs east–west

Buses

Bus service is operated by the Sunshine Bus Company, based in St. Augustine Beach. Buses operate mainly between shopping centers across town, but a few go to Hastings and Jacksonville, where one can connect to JTA for additional service across Jacksonville.

There is also a tour bus company, Old Town Trolley Tours of St. Augustine.

Airport

St. Augustine has one public airport 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the downtown. It has three runways and two seaplane lanes.

Rail

The Florida East Coast Railway runs through St. Augustine. Passenger service to the city ended in 1968. First Coast Commuter Rail is a project to establish commuter rail services between Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

Points of interest

First and second Spanish eras

Avero House
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
Fort Matanzas National Monument
Fort Mose Historic State Park
Nombre de Dios
Gonzalez-Alvarez House
Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
The Spanish Military Hospital Museum
St. Francis Barracks
Colonial Quarter
Ximenez-Fatio House
González-Jones House
Llambias House
Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse
Tolomato Cemetery and Huguenot Cemetery

British era

The King's Bakery

Pre-Flagler era

St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum
Markland Mansion

Flagler era

Ponce de Leon Hotel
Casa Monica Hotel
Hotel Alcazar
Zorayda Castle
Bridge of Lions
Old St. Johns County Jail
Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum located in 1887 mansion of William Worden.
St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park

Historic churches

Lincolnville National Historic District – Civil Rights era

St. Benedict the Moor School

Other points of interest

Anastasia State Park
Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
Great Cross
St. Augustine Amphitheatre
St. Augustine Aquarium
St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum
St. George Street
Victory III, St. Augustine Scenic Cruise boat, since 1973

Culture

Music

The Wobbly Toms (2003), band

Education

Ray Charles Center and the Theodore Johnson Center, at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind

Primary and secondary education in St. Augustine is overseen by the St. Johns County School District.

There are four zoned elementary schools with sections of the city limits in their attendance boundaries: John A. Crookshank (outside the city limits), R. B. Hunt, Ketterlinus, and Osceola (outside the city limits). There are two zoned middle schools (both outside the city limits): R. J. Murray Middle School, and Sebastian Middle School. There are no county high schools located within St. Augustine's current city limits, but St. Augustine High School is the designated senior high school for residentially-zoned land in St. Augustine. Additionally Pedro Menendez High School, and St. Johns Technical High School are located in the vicinity.

The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, a state-operated boarding school for deaf and blind students, was founded in the city in 1885. The Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine operates the St. Joseph Academy, Florida's oldest Catholic high school, to the west of the city.

There are several institutions of higher education in and around St. Augustine. Flagler College is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1968. It is located in the former Ponce de Leon Hotel in downtown St. Augustine. St. Johns River State College, a state college in the Florida College System, has its St. Augustine campus just west of the city. Also in the area are the University of North Florida, Jacksonville University, and Florida State College at Jacksonville in Jacksonville.

The institution now known as Florida Memorial University was located in St. Augustine from 1918 to 1968, when it relocated to its present campus in Miami Gardens. Originally known as Florida Baptist Academy, then Florida Normal, and then Florida Memorial College, it was a historically black institution and had a wide impact on St. Augustine while it was located there. During World War II it was chosen as the site for training the first blacks in the U. S. Signal Corps. Among its faculty members was Zora Neale Hurston; a historic marker was placed in 2003 at the house at 791 West King Street where she lived while teaching at Florida Memorial (and where she completed her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road.)

St. Augustine High School is not in the city limits, but is the zoned high school of St. Augustine
Ketterlinus Elementary School is one of two public elementary schools in the St. Augustine city limits.
Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is a statewide K-12 school for the deaf and blind in St. Augustine

Notable people

United States Senator David Levy Yulee

Author Zora Neale Hurston

Andrew Anderson, physician, St. Augustine mayor
Steve Berry (novelist), bestselling author, resides in St. Augustine
Jorge Biassou, Haitian revolutionary and black Spanish general
Richard Boone, actor
Albert Boyd, member of National Aviation Hall of Fame
James Branch Cabell, novelist
Doug Carn, jazz musician
Cris Carpenter, major league baseball pitcher
Ray Charles, pianist, singer, composer
George J. F. Clarke, Surveyor General of Spanish East Florida
Nicholas de Concepcion, escaped slave who became a Spanish privateer and pirate captain
Earl Cunningham, artist
Alexander Darnes, born a slave, became a well-known physician
Edmund Jackson Davis, governor of Texas
Kathleen Deagan, archaeologist
Frederick Delius, composer
Frederick Dent, general and brother-in-law of Ulysses Grant
Audrey Nell Edwards, civil rights hero
Henry Flagler, industrialist
Willie Galimore, football star
Michael Gannon, historian
William H. Gray, U.S. congressman and president of the United Negro College Fund
Martin Davis Hardin, Union General in the Civil War
Robert Hayling, civil rights leader
Martin Johnson Heade, artist
Zora Neale Hurston, novelist and folklorist
Willie Irvin, Philadelphia Eagles football player
Stetson Kennedy, author and human rights activist
Scott Lagasse, race car driver
Scott Lagasse Jr., race car driver
Jacob Lawrence, artist
William W. Loring, Confederate general
Albert Manucy, historian, author, Fulbright Scholar
Howell W. Melton, United States district judge
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, founder of St. Augustine in 1565
Prince Achille Murat, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte
Andrew Nagorski, journalist and author
David Nolan, author and historian
Osceola, Seminole War leader (held prisoner at Fort Marion, now Castillo de San Marcos)
Verle A. Pope, state legislator
Richard Henry Pratt, soldier and educator
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, novelist
Marcus Roberts, musician
Gamble Rogers, folk singer
John M. Schofield, Union general
Edmund Kirby Smith, Confederate general
Bill Snowden, race car driver
Steve Spurrier, college/pro (American) football coach
Felix Varela, Cuban national hero
Augustin Verot, first Bishop of St. Augustine
Patty Wagstaff, member of National Aviation Hall of Fame
DeWitt Webb, physician, St. Augustine mayor, state representative
David Levy Yulee, first Jewish U.S. Senator, Levy County and Yulee, Florida namesake
Agustin V. Zamorano, pioneer printer and provisional governor of California
Nathan Sturgis, American former soccer player who last played for Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer.

Sister cities

St. Augustine's sister cities are:

Avilés, Spain
Cartagena, Colombia
Menorca, Spain
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Gallery

Bell tower on northeast bastion of the Castillo de San Marcos
North bastions and wall of the Castillo, looking eastward toward Anastasia Island
Seawall south of the Castillo
The city gates of St. Augustine, built in 1808, part of the much older Cubo Line
The Government House. East wing of the building dates to the 18th-century structure built on original site of the colonial governor's residence.
Facade of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Augustine
Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios
Statue of Ponce de León
Memorial Presbyterian Church
The former Hotel Alcazar now houses the Lightner Museum and City Hall
Flagler College, formerly the Ponce de Leon Hotel
Bridge of Lions, looking eastward to Anastasia Island
Tolomato Cemetery